


True Friends Stab You in the Front

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Ed's revenge, Gen, Hurt, Love Confessions, M/M, Some comfort, spoilers for 10 and 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 10:42:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8621389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Ed knows the truth behind Isabella's death, but he isn't exactly sure what's making him so unsure about carrying out revenge.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Going off of the new episode that aired tonight as well as the preview/promo for the episode next Monday.

This was what Ed needed to do.

There was not going to be a huge scene, he had refused to resort to torture, he refused to stoop to Oswald’s level and hire a hitman. Yes, it was going to happen in a public place, but it was going to be quick. He wanted this to be personal, he wanted it to honestly be an intimate event.

The blade barely peeked out from the bottom of his sleeve, he stared at the back of the smaller man’s head as he walked up behind him. He thought about Isabella, he thought about how hard she had tried to help him move away from his past. She had seen a good man in him, she had wanted to help him recover for real. She could have given him the normal life that he had never had in his twenty-nine years of life. Yet she was stolen from him, not even that, but his chance at being a normal man was stolen from him. He cut off a woman’s hand, he tortured a man near to death, and it was all because of a single person who had spent all their time together mentoring him to be the perfect monster.

Well he did a rather good job of it if Ed had to give him credit.

“Oswald”

When he spoke his name his voice rasped, he couldn’t hide his fear or his anger. The older man turned to look up at him, he looked a bit spooked when he noticed the rage etched upon the other man’s sharp features. He had to see it, see something there. 

Ed attempted to hide up his rage with an awkward smile, a smile that seemed to put his supposed friend at ease.

“What is it?”

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, he couldn’t stop thinking about Isabella’s corpse in the morgue. He couldn’t get the image of Tabitha passed out from shock and blood loss out of his mind. Yet there were these nagging images and memories of all the time he dedicated solely dedicated to the man standing before him. The man Barbara informed him had been Isabella’s true killer.

Ed placed a hand on the middle of Oswald’s back, he gently pulled him closer to him until they were nearly pressed together. He could sense the tension in his small frame, he noticed the way Oswald’s breath caught and how his lips parted at the gentle way Ed was holding him.

“Ed?”

He looked down at him, felt him beneath his gloved fingers. He thought about him, about them; he convinced himself this was about ownership and putting him in his place. He told himself that Barbara made up the part about Oswald being in love with him, told him that as a little jab or a joke, but in that moment, he could feel it. He could see it, he remembered that day in his office when Oswald had something to tell him.

The thoughts waging a war in his head distracted him, they made his head ache. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream, if he wanted to just cut to the chase, or if he wanted to…..

Ed moved his hand from Oswald’s back and to the back of his head, he pressed his lips firmly against his honestly taking them both by surprise. Oswald threw his arms around the younger man’s neck as he leaned his body fully against Ed’s as the two of them kissed.

The kiss ended with a pained gasp as Ed shoved the knife into the smaller man’s stomach. He leaned his forehead against the older man’s, he lovingly caressed his cheek as Oswald looked from the handle of the blade then back up into Ed’s dark eyes.

“I know that you killed her.”

He hadn’t expected it when Oswald laughed, a forced pained laugh. He felt the black-haired man’s hand clutching onto his back for support.

“Love makes you do crazy things.”

His grip began to slip, his knees buckled, and Oswald fell to the ground. Ed was quick to kneel at his side, to pick him up and hold him against him. 

“What?”

No, it hadn’t been true when Barbara said that last part, she had been joking.

Oswald did this because he was a horrible man who couldn’t stand to see Ed happy, he couldn’t have done this out of love.

“I love you Ed, I’m sorry it had to be this way.”

No, no this wasn’t happening.

His head hurt so badly, he felt an aching in his chest as he held the smaller man against himself. He pet his fingers through his greasy black hair, he pet his fingers against his pale skin. He knew all of this was wrong, what Oswald had done, what he himself had done to Tabitha and what he had just done to Oswald. None of it was right, in the end they were all terrible people, they were all monsters created by a city filled with hate and loss.

Ed pressed his lips against the smaller man’s forehead, against the bridge of his nose, and then against his slightly parted lips. He smiled in relief when he felt Oswald place a hand over his, his grip wasn’t at its strongest, but he was still awake. He was still alive.

He would get him to a hospital, Ed would stay at his bedside until he knew for sure that Oswald was going to pull through, and then he would take his leave.


End file.
